A Brief History of CAFCNA - The Early Months

[Chief]

It all started back in December of 2001.  At the time I owned a Pontiac Transport Montana.  Not the ugly “dust buster” Transport but the second generation Transport that has some first in class features like a power sliding door.  My Montana was in a phrase, “a complete piece of crap.”

Of any vehicle I’ve owned where the extended service plan had paid off, the Montana was it.  From October of 1998 to December of 2001:

*  Air suspension – rebuilt twice, and then completely replaced
*  Transmission – replaced
*  Stereo head unit – replaced – displayed died
*  Driver’s side power window motor – replaced – poor operation
*  Driver’s side rear power vent window motor – replaced – motor failed
*  Power driver’s door module replaced three times – twice faulty – once on recall
*  Front disc brakes – never, ever, right
*  Front driver’s seat – premature wear, cloth tore through at 43K miles – replaced
*  Windshield wiper module – replaced – failed
*  Passenger side front headlight assembly – replaced – seal failed, filled with water
*  Weather stripping and molding passenger side sliding door – replaced, fell off

I guess you get the idea.  It was the windshield wiper control module that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  I had lent my Montana to a friend to drive a group of women from a homeless shelter to a Christmas dinner at a church.  In pouring rain in the dark of night the wipers stopped working.  That Monday morning I was at the dealer and could see the color drain from the service advisors upon my arrival.  They promised an immediate fix to my problem, and there sitting on the showroom floor by service was a black, 2002 Northface Avalanche with every option.

I started climbing around and looking at this Swiss Army knife of a truck.  I had seen one at the Seattle Auto Show in 2000 and HATED it.  Yup, you read that right.  I thought it was huge, beyond insane in size, overpriced, with looks only a mother could love.  But as I started exploring everything about the Avalanche, including working the Midgate and checking out the saddle bag cargo storage I became more impressed.  It became clear to me on the “why they did that,” and how practical this vehicle was.

So I asked a sales drone if there was a Z-71 package Avalanche around I could drive.  That was a mistake.  I drove the Avalanche for about ten miles and I was hooked.  I took it down to my hometown around a tight col-de-sac and quickly realized that this 19-1/2 foot long truck handled and rode like a luxury car.  I enjoyed the view and the V8 under my right foot.  This set up the negotiation process and I was in a good position.  For all the woes of my Montana it was paid off and still had 43K miles of extended warranty left.  At its current pace I’d have an all new Montana by 80K miles as anything that could break would have been replaced.  In other words I explained to the salesperson I don’t “need” the Avalanche, this is all about, “want,” and if I don’t get a good deal, I’ll walk.

They tried ramming the black Northface down my throat but I didn’t want anything to do with it.  Black is way to hard to keep clean, wasn’t fond of the green and orange interior and no heated seats.  So we found a blue Z-71 with every option you could get in December 2001 (no GM chrome step rails yet).  I was made a great offer on the Avalanche, well below sticker, a $1,000 rebate, 0.0% interest, and a fat trade-in on the Montana.  Done and done.  Signed papers on December 21, 2001 and took delivery on December 23, 2001.  General Motors even tossed in a pair of season passes for the local yokel ski areas for my trouble.

After buying my truck I got on the internet and did some research and found it was hard to do.  There wasn’t a lot of information outside of General Motors.  What was available was largely wrong; things about Midgate operation, cargo area use and operation, capacities, abilities, etc.   On the Edmunds.Com site the Avalanche forum was probably the most active on the web.  There were maybe 50 to 100 Avalanche fans or owners trying to rise about the noise of about 500 to 1000 Avalanche detractors who ranted on and on about the cladding and how it wasn’t a “real” truck (this was prior to the Avalanche selling just under 100K units in its first year and the Motor Trend 2002 Truck of the Year Award and the Consumer Reports Off-Road Round Up where the Avalanche came in second place ahead of 32 other vehicles).

At the time I had a web business and was involved heavily in e-commerce and web design.  I saw CAFCNA as a chance to stretch my skills on something fun, that interested me.  In addition, and in hindsight, only a handful of members know, but I was involved in a very abusive marriage.  CAFCNA became my escape from that for me and my son in particular.  Something that was important in my life, outside of the scope of control of my wife at the time, and where I could reach out to others and build a network virtually.

I contacted General Motors in early January of 2002.  I did a WhoIs search and found that some of the “better” links like, “AvalancheClub, MyAvalanche, etc. etc.” had been taken, so I settled on the long but accurate ChevyAvalancheFanClub.Com.  I requested permission from General Motors to use the URL and set up an enthusiast site for the Avalanche out of personal interest.  The grant of permission was approved.  On January 10, 2002 I bought the URL.  On January 12, 2002 I pushed up the first version of the site and started testing.  On January 15, 2002 I posted on Edmunds that there was an Avalanche website people could go to discuss the Avalanche.  There was no membership requirement, no ads, no nothing.  Just come check it out, if you don’t like it fine.

In the internet world, “if you build it they will come,” typically does not apply.  This was not the case for CAFCNA.  They came and boy did they come.  Frustrated from the noise on Edmunds and to a lesser extent Yahoo word spread quickly virally about the site and in less than 45 days we had over 100 members.  Edmunds had sent me a polite e-mail asking me to please stop posting in their forums.  The Edmund’s forum for the Avalanche had died a death and new people to Edmunds would beg to find out where this other site was.  I respected Edmunds request and stopped posting on their forums with no whining or crying, or complaining or calling them evil.  I took it as a huge complement that this tiny member site of 100 or so people had become a big enough thorn in the side of Edmunds to say, “cut it out.”

However as growth exploded over the first 12 months of CAFCNA life so did a number of issues that I simply never planned.  The CGI based YaBB engine I installed as freeware for the forums crashed as we pushed over 1,000 members.  It simply could not take the activity.  We would max out our allotted server traffic each month and I was hit with crushing bills from out hosting provider.  I believe we changed hosting providers three times, including where we started in 2002 alone.  Each transition brought a 3 to 10 day downtime as servers reconfigured our new IP addresses.

Additionally work on the site to add new features and change the design happened steadily through 2002.  The first home page was very light, and lasted less than 60 days.  A new home page went up that was based on a similar design from a popular travel site.  That lasted about nine months and then either in late 2002 or early 2003 the site UI basically as you see it today was born.

That is a very brief history of CAFCNA and why it came to be.

[RoarinRow]

Thanks for sharing Chief.  I was happy to be here near the inception of the site and got to experience the growing pains, the friendships, and networking of ideas.   

[enkeiavalanche]

I have to say that put a tear in my eye..  That was great.. This is why it is the BEST Avalanche site out there....For the friends made and even a wedding or two..   Even dealers go on here to find info...


   Thanks Chief for everything........

[Chief]

Here is some more history - note that in some cases graphics won't appear correctly or are missing because they have been changed or deleted over the years:

January 11, 2002 Test Page

February 7, 2002 First Home Page

May 27, 2002 Updated Home Page (check out the slick side navigation)

June 4, 2002 Updated Home Page UI  Hey!  That' starting to look a bit familar!

November 28, 2002 Holidays Home Page  Hey!  Notice those Christmas colors?

Didn't realize that the website UI was updated FOUR TIMES in 2002!!!      That's was a lot of Macromedia Fireworks and HTML editing.

[RoarinRow]

Here is some more history - note that in some cases graphics won't appear correctly or are missing because they have been changed or deleted over the years:

January 11, 2002 Test Page

February 7, 2002 First Home Page

May 27, 2002 Updated Home Page (check out the slick side navigation)

June 4, 2002 Updated Home Page UI  Hey!  That' starting to look a bit familar!

November 28, 2002 Holidays Home Page  Hey!  Notice those Christmas colors?

Didn't realize that the website UI was updated FOUR TIMES in 2002!!!      That's was a lot of Macromedia Fireworks and HTML editing.

Haha, the June 4 link has my post on 'Anyone from Sacramento?'.   

[WesTexAVY]

I was snagged by Chief's posting over at Edmunds and showed up here on day 1.
Registered on day #2 and have been here almost EVERY day since!

I don't want to say that YGMN was right behind me........but he did show up quite a bit later 

Thanks so much Chief for creating my home away from home 

[MyBigToy]

I've also been on the site since pretty early on, through all the fun and all the ugly stuff.

I've learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and, unfortunately, spent a TON of money after catching MOD fever!

I'm like Chief; the first time I saw the Av I thought "What is that butt-ugly POS?" After learning about the versatility I also made the mistake of driving one and that was the end of it; I bought one within 2 weeks!

[irontrain]

November 28, 2002 Holidays Home Page  Hey!  Notice those Christmas colors?

Those would look good now.

[RichUF]

Thanks for reminding us of CAFCNA history, Chief, and for sharing some of the more personal details.  I'm so glad that I found you over at Edmunds.  Took me a bit of time lurking to actually register here, but I sure am glad that I finally did.

Thanks for your wonderful creation that led to such a great site full of great folks 

[Alaska_AV.]

ah, the good old days! befor the the gray days of hackers, wackers and packers........


P.S.
OH ya, thanks for the beer stien, just got it!.........just kidding

[BUDDY23]

Wow, that was nice to read.  It has come a long way.  This is definately a home away from home.  Thank you to all that have made this possible.    

[Avalanche Fox]

WOW, seeing those old pages vs. what it is now, is amazing.  i'm so glad you took the energy and time to get the ball rollling.  that's great

[bikerchic1977]

P.S.
OH ya, thanks for the beer stien, just got it!.........just kidding

 

ahh the good ol' days are right.. i remember being on at 3am drooling over the truck i wanted but thought i couldn't get.. then on aug 2, 2002 i owned one and realized i could finally join the club legitimately.. of course i spent that day driving around in it, so i didn't join until the next day..

[txyank1]

I too found this Site via Edmunds, which I still check on every day. I thinks it's safe to say if it weren't for getting "turned on" about the Avalanche every time I visited here I'd probably still be driving a Silverado or Sierra.

[NewtoLI]

Great Story-- I feel like a kid-- tell us more, tell us more.  I love this site and I thank you for working so hard to make a great success for all of us.... If I had karma, I would give you some    Lawanna

[Alaska_AV.]

If I had karma, I would give you some Lawanna

I remember the Karma days, I was about 50/50 between -,+.   

Wasn't YaK -1286/+32  ?

[NewtoLI]

That was great about Yak-- Where is Yak? 

[Chief]

ah, the good old days! befor the the gray days of hackers, wackers and packers........


P.S.
OH ya, thanks for the beer stien, just got it!.........just kidding

No, no, no!  There were no steins.  That all went to my 24 karat gold plated rims!      Oh ya, and my nuclear powered laptop.   

[SamHouseIII]

Thanks for the great story and a even better site/club.

Sam

[MR.SMITH]

Thanks to you Chief I have spend thousand of dollars that I would have normally invested.  


 

[KY_BOB]

Thanks to you Chief I have spend thousand of dollars that I would have normally invested.  


 

   That's funny Mr. Smith! 




...wait a minute.  No it not, it's true

[ygmn]

I was snagged by Chief's posting over at Edmunds and showed up here on day 1.
Registered on day #2 and have been here almost EVERY day since!

I don't want to say that YGMN was right behind me........but he did show up quite a bit later  

Thanks so much Chief for creating my home away from home  

Ya beat me by a few hours....hehehe

If peeps look at that membership table Members List

Then click on the date registered field on the right side...it will sort it by when ya joined....

check out when members joined.... you will see a bunch of the early ones are still active and AHEM....OWn the same AVY like ME!!!!

and for the record WesTexAvy joined: 16 Jan 2002 22:35:33

I joined 17 Jan 2002 02:11:02  So the difference is less then 4 hours....Maybe I had to make a drink? hehehe

I do remember edmonds back in the summer of 2001 up to the point I joined here....I though Chief was nutz..at the time....but ...by then I really desired a AVy specific site to get away from the TUNDRA/SPORTRAC OWNING TROLLS....

Plus the organization of Edmunds stunk so it was hard to discuss problems and mods....

THANKS CHIEF.....  Enjoy your Internet child CAFCNA!

[kodio]

I've also been on the site since pretty early on, through all the fun and all the ugly stuff.

I've learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and, unfortunately, spent a TON of money after catching MOD fever!

I'm like Chief; the first time I saw the Av I thought "What is that butt-ugly POS?" After learning about the versatility I also made the mistake of driving one and that was the end of it; I bought one within 2 weeks!

MBT, you joined the same day I did. 11/22/02. That was about 3 months after getting my AV. I found the site through a Google search, though. I never went to Edmunds.

I have enjoyed and spent way too much time on this website.

[Hop45]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I have been on the other sites and MUCH prefer the organization of CAFCNA. No disrespect to the other sites, but this one is very user friendly and easy to navigate for a computer illiterate like me.  Great site; worth every penny to become a supporting member ( you get a nice gift also!).  Thanks Chief for all your hard work.

[Murman]

Chief,

Your site has impacted the Murman family.

11 Jul 2002, 7:07:08 PM, Member 1406.

Total Time Spent Online: 24 days, 10 hours and 31 minutes.
Total Posts: 2904 posts
Total Topics: 95 topics
Number of Polls Created: 1 polls
Number of Votes Cast: 39 votes

... and two AVs.

Happy Holidays,

Murman